<--PREV Doc #1886  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1888 Document #1887; June 4, 1956 To Harley Cope Series: EM, WHCF, Official File 126-A-2 The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVII - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part X: Cracks in the Alliance; May 1956 to September 1956 Chapter 20: Confronting "great risks"   Dear Admiral Cope: I read with great interest the memorandum that you left with me, entitled, "A Simple, Practical, Effective Plan for Curbing Juvenile Delinquency."1 There are several points in which my agreement is very emphatic. The first of these is that the suggested program should be carried out unobtrusively and should contain no hint that it is for the purpose of curbing juvenile delinquency.2 I really believe the words "juvenile delinquency" are doing as much as any other that I can think of to defeat our purposes in this regard. What we should be talking about is something positive; namely, the sane, healthy development of our children morally, intellectually and physically. Your memorandum attacks one phase of the effort--and it may well be the most important--the relationship of the child to his home. In any event, I am going to send your memorandum to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare with the request that they study it earnestly. It is easily possible that you may hear from them with a request that you go into further detail as to the organization and implementation of your idea.3 It was a pleasure to see you, and I thank you once more for the delivery of your World War message to me.4 With personal regard, Sincerely 1 Rear Admiral (Ret.) Harley Francis Cope (USNA 1919), a member of the staff of the Naval Command in London during 1944, had been responsible for the establishment of the naval commands in Nantes and Paris. Cope, who was active in children's charitable organizations, had met with the President on June 4 to suggest that juvenile delinquency be curbed through subliminal advertising aimed at influencing parents to find activities for their children at home (Cope's memorandum, dated June 4, 1956, is in the same file as the document). 2 Cope had written that "The parents who have potential delinquents simply don't comprise the seeing, listening or reading audience. Therefore the message must be gotten to them in such a manner that they will not realize that it is being directed at them." 3 On June 20 HEW Secretary Folsom would write Cope to say that his program would contribute to HEW's ongoing efforts to develop appropriate policies for preventing and treating juvenile delinquency (same file as document). For more on Eisenhower's concern about juvenile delinquency and the establishment of the President's Council on Youth Fitness see Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1956, pp. 478-79, 577-79. 4 The "message" was one that in 1944 USMA Cadet John S. D. Eisenhower had tried to send to his father; John had asked Cope to say hello to his father, should the two men see each other in London (see Cope to Eisenhower, May 23, 1956, WHCF/PPF 1524). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Harley Cope, 4 June 1956. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1887. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/1887.cfm <--PREV Doc #1886  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1888

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